Saturday, October 20, 2007

In-Progress At Martinsville: Craftsman Trucks On SPEED

Saturday on SPEED the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will run one of their highest-profile events of the season. Joining the Truck Series regulars will be several Cup Series drivers and also several open-wheel stars continuing to make the transition to NASCAR.

SPEED will begin the day with NASCAR Live at 10:30AM Eastern Time to update the weather and the activities at the track from Friday. NASCAR Live is hosted by John Roberts.

The Truck Series activity begins at 11:00AM with live qualifying, which is scheduled for one hour. Later in the afternoon at 2:30PM, SPEED begins the race coverage with The Set-Up pre-race show hosted by Krista Voda.

The event coverage begins at 3PM, and features Rick Allen in the booth along with Phil Parsons as the analyst. On pit road will be Adam Alexander and Bob Dillner will continue to sub for Ray Dunlap who has been suspended by the network until the TX race. I do not have current information about Michael Waltrip's participation in the race coverage.

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We just want your opinion of the NASCAR TV partners performance this season. Thanks again for taking the time to stop-by.

I love the Truck Series. I regard it as a series that stands on its own merits. It has its own unique flavor and facinating story lines. There are many very good drivers that have found a home in the series, away from the politics of sponsor demands and the high profile team pecking order. The focus is on the track. The CTS is entertaining racing.

The NASCAR media generally seems to treat the CTS as the poor relation that is seated at the far end of the buffet. The major websites report the race results, but it is a treasure hunt to find information about teams and drivers leading up to the event.

I think SPEED does a very credible job with their coverage of CTS. They treat the series with respect. The announcing team does a good job, especially Phil Parsons. (However, as I watch the CTS qualifying program, I do wish that M. Waltrip would tone down his "stream of conscience" chatter. It is distracting.) It was nice to see Hermie Sadler make the race in the SPEED truck.

Unfortunately, in my area COMCAST has placed SPEED in the premium catagory of their pricing structure. Consequently, many NASCAR fans do not get to see the CTS series. That is too bad, they are missing a fun series.

Mr Keller:I wrote the post above yours while at my office. After I pasted the text to the blog, I edited out a few wordy portions. Because of some distractions, I inadvertently edited out the last paragraph which mentioned your fine website. My apologies.

"I should note that there is a website, truckseries.com, that provides a lot of CTS information. In fact, I'm tracking the qualifying on truckseries.com right now as a compliment to SPEED's coverage. Unfortunately, many casual NASCAR fans never get beyond NASCAR.com, so they probably don't know about it."

I'm sorry, "knock the snot out of any man"? How classy. I wish the FOX guys did the truck races. Krista is horrible, full of cliches, and just blah. The truck series deserves better. And can't she figure out something about her hair? It's more out of control than David Ragan.

I think a truck pre-race show host desk is a waste of time. I think Phil and Rick do a better job, put Krista in the pits. She doesn't give it a big event feel. Rick Allen gives you a feeling this is a big race.

IMHO, I think Phil and Rick are great! Why do we need to listen to Michael Waltrip babble on and on with his nasal voice. It's like nails across a chalk board. I wish there were more short tracks on the schedule.

How about the VO/SOTs on the pre race show. I disagree with you Anonymous 2:56. The truck series needs a pre race show just for this reason. I don't just want to know who's racing but give me a storyline I can follow like Travis Kittleson or Dennis Setzer. The Set-Up is needed for the fans who want to know more about the other drivers not just the top contenders.

The Setup is a great show with loads of information which would not get covered during the race. Krista is one of the most respected announcers by the drivers, crews, owners, officials and her peers. Keep up the good work Krista.

Yea, Anonymous 3:13 but it looks more professional when there’s an overall host. The Setup is a separate show form the Truck Series and having a pre race show solidifies the speed production. How many sports productions do you know that don't have pre and or post shows?

I'm sorry Krista is mediocre host. I think she is OK as a pit reporter. When she hosts, life hinges on a teleprompter. I'm sure she is a nice girl. Judging by her web site, she reminds me of Jamie Little. I just think Phil and Rick Allen do a much better job.

Is it just me is does it seem like the Speed guys are going overboard in their praise of the open-wheel guys running in today's race? Villeneuve crashes and Rick Allen immediately calls it a racing incident that wasn't his fault before we ever saw a replay. Sure enough once we saw the replay we saw that he was the one that made the mistake and caused the incident. He's 3 for 3 by the way in causing crashes in his Truck starts, 4 or 4 if you count the Cup race at Talladega where Elliott Sadler claimed Villeneuve wrecked him long after he had slowed down for a crash in front of him, which was missed completely by ESPN. Yet Michael Waltrip praised both Villeneueve and Franchitti for great jobs today. Villeneuve was at least semi-competitive but Dario ran in the back all day and got wrecked, how is that considered doing "great"? It reminds me of the Martinsville Cup race a few years ago where the NBC announcers were praising the job Hideo Fukuyama was doing early in the race while the graphics were displaying "Hideo Fukuyama - started 43rd, currently 43rd, 7 laps down".

I think the TV guys need to be more objective when critiquing the new drivers. It seems too often everyone sings te praises of all of the new drivers for doing "great jobs" when in actuality they aren't.

Wow...that was a fun race. Loved watching Hornaday keep his truck under control at the end. Then a wreck right before the start/finish line which somewhat blocked the rest of the racers from getting to the line.

I noted the brief blackout right at the end too. Between the blackout, shade, and smoke, it was hard to see some of what was going on.

Wow, great race looked like speed had to leave the trcks for the sports cars so not too many interviews and they didn't really do a follow-up on what happened to the 17 truck. Going to black for about a second hurt the broadcast but overall it was okay

Well if it was a single camera black out, they were slow on the uptake to switch.

Also, I noticed two missed restarts for sure and maybe a third. but in all fairness, I DO know this is more of an issue at short tracks. Not to make excuses.

but there is NO REASON to miss restarts at LONGER tracks, especially the superspeedways in my opinion.

Simply folks asleep at the wheel.

ESPN is the worst I have seen at this and NO IMPROVEMENT. Except in a couple of BUSCH races.

I thought the camera work was poor in the shade at this track. I doon't remember seeing a race look "so dark" on my tv on SPEED or anywhere. That was odd.

but we never missed a wreck on the track though on the big one, it seemed the replay took forever and even showed a couple of laps earlier...so you wonder what that was about? They did not show a GOOD CAMERA "replay" view of the big wreck until about the 4 or 5th attempt.